The Doom that came to Karrnath

The Sands of Victory

18

APR/15

Still in the old caves of worship of the elves, the Breela, Fargen and Logan decided to explore further. They went back to the bridge, which was guarded by two elven statues. A goblin perched on one of the statues hinted that they might be animated and dangerous.

Fargen decided that this would be the moment to show his might as a stalwart and charged right into one. He was hit by the guardian’s halberd, but a swift push shoved it off the bridge, plunging to its death. A quick melee later, the second statue also went over the rail, and the way ahead was cleared.

The party stood before a large bronze portal, adorned with the head of a dragon split right through the middle. Bravely they went ahead.

Inside, they entered what appeared to be the spectator ranks of a fighting pit. Around them were ethereal shades of elves on one side, cheering their champion in the arena, and what appeared to be chained-up dwarven slaves, who were brought to visit the defeat of one of their own. The entire spectacle appeared to be out of time, as if it was a story that kept repeating itself over and over.

As the party decided to step in to stop the elven champion, the scene became more real, with guards at the top of the ranks stepping in to stop the heroes. Fargen jumped into the pit to fight in the arena, while Breela and Logan tried to hold back the guards.

Fierce combat ensued, with Fargen driving the elven champion off the dwarven gladiator, who appeared to be weakened by some sort of poison. The elven champion then showed surprising athletic skill when he swiftly climbed out of the pit to attack Breela and Logan instead. Their combined arrows took him down though, as well as the remaining guards.

As the dwarven champion dematerialized, he left behind his shield, armor and hammer. All three items turned out to be powerful divine items. Even more surprising, however, was that they bore the emblems of the Silver Flame, as well as the insignia of clan Noldrun, a dwarven clan that had disappeared over 400 years ago, even before the Silver Flame revealed itself to Tira Miron.

Fargen tried to wield the shield, and was immediately taken in by its power. It appeared as if the power of the Silver Flame was giving his life purpose in a way that neither House Kundarak nor anything else could give him.

On the way back, the party spent some time putting the parts of the puzzle together. It appears as if the conflict of Blood of Vol and Silver Flame is much older than known human history, and their predecessor religions of drove a war between elves and dwarves some two thousand years ago.

Back at the monastery, the party discussed these findings with the head sister. She suggested to keep the news under wrap for now, as it was not sure how the Church of the Silver Flame would react to rumors of a dwarven predecessor cult. The party decided to travel to the Mror holds and try to find out more at clan Noldrun’s lost keep.